Coherency
by Rizzoli-Isles-69
Summary: Jane comes to a realization, some stuff goes down, and it will go from there!


**Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, though I love them dearly. Rights belong to Tess Gerritsen and TNT, I presume.**

Tonight was yet another Friday night movie night, and Jane and Maura found themselves in Maura's living room, an empty pizza box in front of them on the coffee table, a beer in Jane's hand and a glass of wine in Maura's. After a lengthy argument about what they would be watching, Jane had finally relented and agreed to watch a 90-minute long "bore-fest", as she referred to it, on the decomposition of bones, provided Maura let her watch the final two innings of the Red Sox game.

"Whyyyy," Jane had whined when Maura insisted that it was her turn to choose the movie, "you always pick the most _BOH_-RING things to watch. Who wants to watch an hour and a half of bones decomposing?" She stomped her feet like a four year old and put on a face of pure displeasure.

"It really is quite fascinating, Jane, if you would give it a chance," Maura insisted.

_Maura lied_, Jane thought as the documentary neared its end. _That wasn't fascinating at all. Pfft.. I'll show her. I'll pick a movie about baseball for next week. Or maybe basketball. Hm. Tough choice. Field of Dreams, maybe? Ooh ooh, no, Coach Carter. Yeah. That'll - _Jane's inner monologue was interrupted by Maura shifting to lean against her side and lay her head on her shoulder. Jane felt her heartbeat quicken at this motion and she prayed to God that Maura couldn't hear it.

Lately, Jane had been having some terrifying, yet somehow not unexpected, feelings for her best friend that weren't very bestfriendly at all. For a few months now, she had been looking at Maura in a different light. Of course she had always known that Maura was beautiful, splendidly intelligent, successful, and overwhelmingly charming in all her social awkwardness. People of all kinds were just _drawn_ to her. If you knew Maura, you adored Maura. It was just a fact of life.

However, Jane found herself being drawn to Maura in a whole new way. Never before had she noticed the way Maura's three hundred dollar shirts clung to her and fell off of her in all the right places. How the necks often scooped low, revealing just enough cleavage so that it was enticing, yet somehow appropriate for work at the same time. The way her yoga-toned calves stood out while she wore heels, flexing and contracting as she walked. Jane's favorite thing though, she decided, was the way Maura would sometimes stick her tongue out between her lips when she was deeply concentrated, pouring herself over a body on her table.

Jane recalled the first time she had thought about Maura as more than a friend. Maura had been performing an autopsy after a double homicide of two students at BCU. Jane stood in the doorway of the morgue, leaning against the doorframe, just watching Maura work. She watched as Maura slid her safety goggles down over her bright, expressive eyes and began poking and prodding at the victim's body. Eyebrows knitted together, she stuck her tongue out to wet her lips, and there it remained for several minutes. Jane briefly wondered what it would be like to kiss those lips, and with this thought, her stomach plummeted to somewhere near her feet.

_What the hell, _she had thought, _why the hell are you thinking of Maura like that? Stop! ..STOP!_

But she hadn't stopped. For the rest of the day, this thought followed her around. Every time she spoke to Maura, she found her eyes dropping from Maura's own down to her mouth. The next day, the thoughts had not dissipated. Nor the next day. Now here she was, three months later, still thinking about Maura in the same more-than-friend way. She was stuck.

At present, Jane was sitting on the couch of the woman she adored so much, being used as her personal pillow. She could feel Maura's slow and steady breathing and wondered momentarily if she was sleeping, before Maura shifted her weight down, sprawling across the length of the couch, and moving to use Jane's thigh as a pillow instead. Checking the time, Jane made a quick move for the remote lying on the arm of the couch to distract herself.

"Okayyyy, time for the game now, Maur.." she said, trailing off.

"No! Not yet, Jane, please? There are only a few minutes left!" Maura exclaimed, extending her hands upward to wrap them around the remote. Jane retaliated, tugging at the remote, attempting to get it free from Maura's grasp. They wrestled it back and forth, until Maura put her whole body into it and yanked it out of Jane's grip. In doing so, she sailed off the couch and landed in a heap on the floor, Jane falling forward and landing on top of her.

After realizing the position they were in, Jane immediately froze, poised above Maura, biceps prominent as she held her torso up to allow Maura to breathe. Again, she found herself thinking about what it would be like to kiss Maura's soft, pink lips. She got lost in her own thoughts, as the kiss she imagined between her and Maura progressed into a more potentially R-rated scenario.

A slight shift in the lean form underneath her snapped her out of her reverie. Realizing that she had been staring at Maura's mouth, she dragged her eyes away and up to meet Maura's own. Immediately, she regretted this decision as several months' worth of emotions suddenly flooded her brain. She tried to stop the flood; to build that dam that she was so practiced in constructing, but she was too intoxicated, too drunk on everything that was Maura Isles.

All she could see was Maura.

Smell- Maura.

Touch- Maura.

Hear- Maura. Breathing heavily..?

Taste-

Suddenly Jane found herself wanting, no, _needing _to know what Maura Isles tasted like. She began to lean down slowly, the muscles in her biceps flexing. Her brain was firing out caution signs left and right, telling her that this was a bad idea, that she could get rejected, or slapped, or worst of all, it could ruin their friendship. Her body wouldn't listen. It had a mind of its own. She felt her own heart racing, faster and faster until she was almost sure it would beat out of her chest. As soon as this thought entered her brain, she could almost hear Maura chastising her with something crazy like, "_Jane, don't be ridiculous, it is not scientifically possible for a heart to contract quickly nor forcefully enough to leave the thoracic cavity. Not to mention the sternum and multiple ribs it would have to crack to even begin to do so._" She smiled at the thought and was surprised to see Maura smile back, given their current position, which could very well be considered compromising.

Confidence bolstered by the fact that Maura was clearly not upset by being in this position, Jane continued her descent. She inched slowly, so that Maura could stop her if she wanted to. The gap between them was rapidly closing, yet it felt like years that Jane was there, hovering above her. Six more inches and their lips would meet.. Five..Four.. Suddenly, as deep brown met hazel, Jane registered something in Maura's eyes that she hadn't noticed before- Uncertainty? Hesitation? Fear? Was Maura afraid of what she was about to do?

Jane forced herself to look more deeply into those beautiful, telling eyes, which were set slightly wider than usual. What Jane found there was not fear, but rather nervousness. _Of course Maura is nervous, why wouldn't she be? I'm nervous, but it doesn't mean I don't want to do this_, Jane thought to herself. Having reasoned this out in her head, Jane couldn't wait any longer. She knew that if she did, she would lose all courage, and would never know what it felt like to have her lips on Maura's.

This thought, this possibility of never getting another chance, was the only thing she needed to close the remainder of the gap in one swift motion, crashing her lips down onto Maura's. There was nothing soft or gentle about it. In the moment that their lips met, Jane's head spun. Dozens of thoughts bounced around her head. _This is amazing, how could I have not done this before? Her lips are so soft, I wonder if we could just stay this way for the rest of our lives. Are those her..? Yup, those are her boobs, brushing against mine, oh god. I wonder if she's in this same state of ecstasy that I'm in. Is that her..? Yep, that's her tongue sliding into my mouth._

_WHAT THE HELL?! Maura's tongue sliding into my mouth?! What the fuck?! _

At this thought, Jane panicked. What the hell was she doing? This was her best friend. Doctor Maura Isles, the most beautiful, intelligent, sophisticated woman she had ever met. Jane scrambled off of her and jumped up, immediately heading for the door. She grabbed her coat off the rack and managed a mumbled, "I gotta go, Maur. See you around." Flustered, Maura sat up, only just then beginning to truly comprehend what had happened. "Jane, wait!" she shouted, but Jane was already on her way out the door, and Maura was answered only with a loud slam as the door met its frame.

Maura knew she should run after her, tell her that it was okay, that she wasn't upset with her. She wanted to, but her body hadn't quite caught up with her mind, and so she sat there, stock still, and listened as Jane started her car and peeled out of the driveway. She sat there in her living room for what felt like an eternity, dress slightly hiked, hair a bit of a mess. She wished her body had been able to move, to bring Jane into her arms and comfort her, but despite her efforts, her motor skills were effectively impaired, and she was unable to coordinate them with her thoughts.

After a long while, she stood up and began to go about her nightly ritual, eventually settling into her bed. She attempted to get her mind off of Jane by reading The New England Journal of Medicine, but was utterly unsuccessful. She tossed the magazine on her nightstand and rolled into the covers, wondering what exactly she would have said to Jane, had she been able to get up off the ground. She would have told her not to run. Not to over-think things. She would have run up to Jane and told her that she felt.. how _did_ she feel?

For hours, Maura tried to articulate her feelings in her head. Her thoughts were all jumbled up, each one as confusing as the next. Jane was her best friend. They had been through everything together. Jane had been the one to save her from Hoyt; the one that had been there when she found out who her real father was, and then who her mother was. She was the reason Maura even had two legs to walk on; the one whose family invited her with open arms to be a cherished member of their clan. In many ways, she owed her life to Jane Rizzoli. Yet, in this moment, for the first time in her life, she could not form a single concrete thought. She was not capable of stringing words together to form a coherent sentence. She couldn't even conjure up a scientific fact to match the situation.. and that, Maura thought, was the most terrifying of all.

**A/N: Please review and let me know what you guys think! One of my first fics, so it would be great to get some feedback! :)**


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